American gymnast Jordan Chiles must return her bronze medal from the Olympic games in Paris after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined that her floor exercise was improperly judged.
In the ruling, which was announced on Sunday, the IOC revealed that it would reallocate the award to Ana Barbosu of Romania, who finished in fourth place.
"We are in touch with the NOC [National Olympic Committee] of Romania to discuss the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC regarding the return of the bronze medal," the IOC said in a statement.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said Sunday it would appeal the ruling.
"We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal, and there were critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed," U.S. Olympic officials said in a statement.
The controversy surrounded Chiles’ floor routine (via NPR):
Chiles had performed last in Monday's final, and her score initially appeared as a 13.666. Barbosu, who scored 13.700, briefly thought she had won bronze and began to celebrate.
But Chiles' coaches filed an inquiry over her score, saying that judges had incorrectly valued the difficulty of her routine. Judges at the event upheld the inquiry and granted Chiles an additional tenth of a point, moving her score from to 13.766. That higher score leapfrogged her over Barbosu and a second Romanian gymnast, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea.
The next day, Romanian Olympic officials protested the judges' decision, alleging that Chiles' coaches had filed their inquiry too late. On Saturday, an independent court agreed and vacated Chiles' inquiry, officially revising her score back down to 13.666.
Reportedly, Chiles’ inquiry came in four seconds too late. Chiles was moved down to fifth place instead of third.
"The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring," USA Gymnastics and USOPC said in a statement.
"Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be subject to such treatment. We condemn the attacks and those who engage, support or instigate them," the statement continued. "We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continue to stand by and support her.
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